Web Resources for Research in Economics

The Basics

Resources for economists
on the Internet Most searches begin with a look at the vast number of links
offered by the web site hosted by the American Economic Association,
Resources for Economists on the Internet. Resources includes
official sites, sites of major research organizations, and a vast
number of references to economics data that may be publicly
available.

Any serious research in economics must also look at EconLit,
the bibliographic reference for all economists. It is available
on-line at the Goddard
Library.

Economics Data

There is indeed a wealth of economics data on the internet, but
finding it can be quite a challenge. One place to start is the Resources
for Economists on the Internet data page with a large number of links.
In general terms, these have proven to be useful:

The American Statistical Association maintains a very useful gateway
to economics data (both macro and micro), US and international. Each
entry includes general information on the source and the link. There
is also a search engine for the site. This is an excellent place to
start, since each source also as a rating as to quality.

The University of California-San Diego has another
excellent site, with a search engine that covers country-level
and individual-level data. Detailed descriptions of each data source
are also provided.

TheWorld
Factbook provides General data on the economies of countries
world wide by the Central Intelligence Agency.

The World
Development Indicators of the World Bank provides macroeoconomic
data and various indicators of national development. You can also
use the Query
section to create your own data sets in Excel format.

The IMF
country reports provide comprehensive data on the financial
condition of member countries.

For sites that provide more detail on a national basis, conducting a
search is much more challenging. The various international statistical
offices might be considered a starting point and they should be
investigated. Many times they are unwilling to part with substantially
detailed data, but it is worthwhile to look at them first.

Eurostat of the
European Union, but not so much is available for downloading (you
can always consult the European Economy found in the Goddard
Library). It is best to go the free download part of the web site.

The University of Maryland maintains a useful data
bank of many variables for the US economy in a format ready to
download.

Major New York
Financial Institutions

Links to Federal
Reserve Banks

These links are particularly useful for the research produced by the
staffs of the individual banks. You can head for the Research Papers
or Special Studies of these Sites. An interactive
introduction to how the Federal Reserve System works is available at
the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank.

Links to Central Banks
of Countries Outside of the United States

Links to other
Important International Financial and Trade Organizations

The World Bank, which
offers researchers a range of in-depth research papers (follow the
link to research from the home page and use the search engine) and
useful data on macroeconomic and other indicators. The World
Development Indicatorshas many tables on-line. In addition,
you can search at Data
Query to get tables of the last five years of data for a range
of variables and countries. The data can be exported into text or
Excel spreadsheet files.